Shutdown in Meghalaya against injustice with Delhi's Christians

Shillong, Feb 16 (IANS) Normal life came to a standstill in Meghalaya Monday following a dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by an outlawed insurgent outfit against alleged "injustice" meted to the Christians in New Delhi.

There have been six incidents of ransacking or vandalism at Christian institutions in Delhi.

The shutdown call was also given by Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), an insurgent outfit, also to protest alleged harassment of truckers on the National Highways of the state and delay in submitting the Mookhep firing incident report.

The HNLC, which organises hit-and-run operations from its hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Khasi state.

The Khasi-Jaintia dominated areas were paralysed during the shutdown.

Shops, businesses and educational institutions remained shut while there was little movement of public and private transport.

There was skeleton presence of staff at the state secretariat and central government offices, and attendance in courts was also low.

Two national highways - 40 and 44 - considered the lifelines for Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Manipur and southern Assam, were also affected by the shutdown.

However, government and financial institutions functioned normally.

"Attendance of staffs at the state government offices was about 80 percent throughout Khasi-Jaintia Hills. There were some offices which recorded poor attendance," chief secretary P.B.O. Warjri told IANS.

Warjri said there were no reports of any untoward incident.